New Witcher show is being panned by critics

Just when you thought Netflix’s Witcher situation couldn’t get any worse, it did. Fans of the show really haven’t been having a good time lately - it was recently announced that after season three, the one and only Henry Cavill will be stepping down from the role of Geralt, and will be replaced by Liam Hemsworth.

To say that viewers aren’t happy about this would be an understatement - a petition to keep Cavill in the show and fire the writers instead is fast approaching 300k signatures, which speaks for itself. Now though, reviews have started rolling in for the new Witcher miniseries, Blood Origin, which is releasing later this month, and yeah… it’s not looking good.

Take a look at the trailer for The Witcher: Blood Origin below.

At the time of writing, over on Rotten Tomatoes, Blood Origin has a pitiful critic score of 36%. It’s worth keeping in mind here that it’s early days, and this score is currently based on 11 reviews, but so far, there’s been some very harsh criticism.

In her review, Collider’s Therese Lacson wrote: “Despite having great promise, too often Blood Origin slips into either complete camp, cringe, or melodrama. Part of what makes fantasy shows like The Witcher exciting is a rich cast of characters who might initially fit into archetypes of heroes and villains, but actually reveal themselves to be complex people who can expand far beyond this. Blood Origin tries to do this, but falls flat.”

GamesRadar+’s Bradley Russell shared similar thoughts: “In a year filled with great fantasy - House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power among them - this ultimately ranks near the bottom. A pre-Witcher exploration of the mutant species’ genesis and the story of how the worlds of monsters and men collide should have enriched the main series and thrilled in its own right. This does neither.”

To wrap things up, Dexerto’s Cameron Frew had one key suggestion for readers: “It’s a passable, quasi-brutal blur of magic and blood you’ll forget the moment it’s done. Just play The Witcher 3 instead.”

Ouch. If you want to wait and judge the show for yourself, it’ll be hitting Netflix on 25 December.